


Tea Shops & Bloody Marys

by sassiestemerald



Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-27
Updated: 2016-12-03
Packaged: 2018-09-02 12:34:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8667859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sassiestemerald/pseuds/sassiestemerald
Summary: keichi69_mins prompt "Drinks"Keito drinks tea at a tea shop.Eichi decides to make a Bloody Mary.The two chapters are not necessarily related and to be read as stand alone one shots. Disclaimer: I know nothing about tea and alcohol, especially alcohol. DON'T HATE ME FOR MY LACK OF ALCOHOL KNOWLEDGE. Also it's very likely that some of this is OOC, but well.





	1. Chapter 1

Keito opened the door to the tea shop. The light scent of tea tickled his nose as he walked inside. The wood furniture and dim lighting created the warm ambiance he needed from the rainy weather. Placing his umbrella at the rack provided, he walked up to the register where a familiar face greeted him.

“Would you like the usual sir?” The auburn-haired girl at the counter smiled.

Keito pushed up his glasses. “Yes, please.” He handed her the change and slowly made his way over to his usual table near the window. Glancing out the window, he noticed the rain pounding down on the asphalt. He breathed a sigh of relief.  _Any later and I would have been soaked._

Keito placed his bag in the chair beside him and sat down. With only a few customers, the soft music from the speakers resonated through the establishment. He relaxed in the chair and massaged his temples. Today was tiring with meetings upon meetings with the company staff. If there was one thing that put him back at ease, it was drinking some tea at this place. From warm tea, to cold tea, to other tea-flavored drinks, the shop had grown very popular since it first opened. Every drink was carefully crafted and the employees received training straight from the owner.

He pulled back the sleeves of his shirt, waiting for his arms to feel the coolness from the table. An ink blotch on his wrist caught Keito’s eye. Grabbing a napkin from the holder, he started rubbing against his wrist.

He stared back out the window. A few cars glistened as they went by while the streetlight illuminated the outside.  It was dark and the rain was still falling, but the lighting and the activity put him at ease.  A year had already passed by since he joined the advertising company working as a strategist and, when time permitted, an illustrator. Hoping to have some time to finish up his current drawing project, Keito had left the house early in the morning, but as soon as he reached the office, his supervisor pushed a new project on him that needed immediate attention.

“Here you go.” Keito snapped out of his trance and looked up.

“Thank you.” The auburn-haired girl placed the cup of rooibos in front of him, gave him a slight nod, and turned to head back to the counter.

“Is he-,” Keito didn’t get to finish before the girl turned back around to face him.

“A new order came in, so he’s in the back taking care of the shipment.” She grinned and went back.

Keito gave a nod to her retreating frame and glanced around the shop again. The few customers left in the shop were on their way out.

 _It’s almost closing time anyway,_ Keito thought to himself. The aroma of the rooibos tingled his senses and filled him with a familiar warmth. He pulled the cup closer to the right side of the table and made room on the left for his sketchpad, pulling it out of his bag. Crinkled on the sides, the edges of the pages seemed aged. It was one of the sketchpads he had been using since he was younger, his special one. 

Keito took a sip of the tea and looked back out the window. It was getting darker as the sun was setting. The rain had stopped and the clouds made way for the sun to shine through if for only an hour. Mindlessly twirling the pen in his left hand, he brought the cup to his lips once more. The earthy flavor of the herbal tea was soothing to him. He continued to sip the tea as he watched the purple streaks in the sky start to slowly fade. Placing his empty cup down back to his right, he switched the pen to his right and brought his sketchpad closer to him. Keito began to draw.

* * *

 

Keito abruptly stopped his pen and kept his eyes on his sketchpad. He hunched over his sketchpad as he felt soft sleeves encircling his neck and a light pressure on his shoulders. A few seconds later, he could hear calm breathing next to his ear.

“Keito. I’m done.” Keito glanced out the window. It had gotten pretty dark. He turned his eyes over to his watch which read 9PM. _Already that late, I was drawing for a while._

The arms around his neck encircled him tighter. The warm breath next to him tingled Keito’s ear tingled. “Are you drawing Keito? In _that_ sketchpad?” The voiced was animated. Keito could almost see the smile spreading across the owner’s face.

“Eichi, everything taken care of? Ready to go home?” Keito placed the pen down and placed his hands on top of the ones encircling him. He felt Eichi’s hair rub his own as Eichi pushed his cheek up against Keito’s.

“Yeah, but not before you let me see what you drew today.” Eichi pulled away his arms and took a step towards the chair next to Keito. He sat down and faced him. Keito straightened up and stared at the blue eyes he loved dearly. He slid the sketchpad over to Eichi.

Eichi made no sound while he stared at what was presented in front of him. On the left was an image of a boy, sitting over a cliff, looking at the sun setting over the water. His face was not visible, but the drawing invoked a melancholy feeling in Eichi. He tried to silence the feeling inside of him as he looked over to the right. Keito drew a similar setting on the right, but this time the boy was standing, his face with a smile, one hand pointing towards the sunset, while the other entangled with another hand, belonging to a boy with a similar face. The melancholy feeling Eichi felt started to fade, making way to a comforting happiness.

“It’s beautiful Keito,” Eichi breathed softly.

“The sunset was harder to see today,” Keito replied. “I was hoping to color it before you saw it.” Eichi looked up at Keito, his face expressing to Keito that the lack of color did little to foil the beauty of his work.

Eichi glanced over at the empty cup, yet to be taken away. “Rooibos again? I would have thought you’d get tired of it by now.” He smiled and got up, taking the cup towards the kitchen to wash the last of the dishes for today’s customers.  

Keito stared in the direction Eichi went. _It reminds me of when we finally got together._ The tea shop was Eichi’s baby, his first attempt to cut the strings his family had on him. Rooibos tea, the first flavor he got Keito to try before opening his shop, and incidentally, the first drink that brought them _closer_. He closed his sketchpad and packed it away in the bag, pushing the chairs back under the table. He saw Eichi turning off the few lights left and making his way over to him with another bag apart from his usual one.

Eichi smiled as he got closer. “Actually Keito, the shipment today you see, the company gave a gift with it. Rooibos wine. Since you like rooibos so much, why don’t we drink a couple glasses tonight?”

They headed out the door and Eichi locked his tea shop. Eichi circled his arm around Keito’s as they walked towards home. The thought of rooibos wine intrigued Keito, but what would come after the drinking, hinted at in Eichi’s tone, appealed to him more. Roobios drinks seemed to be good for their relationship.

 

 

 


	2. Bloody Mary

                Eichi looked at the concoction he made, a rather disturbing color, a little too close to the familiar color of blood. He compared it to the photo pulled up on his tablet, the photo having a milder tone of red. He was sure he followed the recipe he received from his friend correctly. At any rate, he was committed to try it, the Bloody Mary.

                 His friend suggested that spice in the drink would suit Keito’s flavor and Eichi took it upon himself to try it out first. The spice would definitely be a hit with Keito, but he couldn’t imagine why anyone would mix vodka with tomato juice. Eichi stared at the carton of tomato juice on the counter. _Is there even a difference between that and ketchup?_ He looked back at his glass and pondered for a moment whether this was a good idea.

                Taking a deep breath, he moved closer to the glass and held it up close to his mouth. He could smell the bits of pepper he added and the Tabasco sauce he had received earlier that day from a shipment. He wanted it as fresh as possible. The smell tingled his nose and he was certain a sneeze would come out in a second. He waited, and when none came, he proceeded to bring the glass to his lips.

                Eichi sipped a little bit feeling the texture of the drink. It was different from his usual encounters with alcohol. He decided to take a bigger sip and gulped down a chunk. _What a mistake._  

                The pepper stuck in throat threw him into a bout of coughing and he struggled to put the glass back on the counter. A few drops dripped to the floor from his hand. As he kept coughing, he realized he miscalculated just how much pepper he was adding into the drink. He could feel his eyes starting to water from the coughing that just wouldn’t stop.

                When Keito walked into the kitchen, the one thing he didn’t expect to see was Eichi wheezing for air through his coughing fit. He was in shock, so much so, he failed to take in the picture of the entire kitchen. Keito was always careful, but today, at this moment, all he could see was his childhood friend hacking it up, with a hand for support on the counter, and his head facing the floor. As Keito moved closer towards Eichi, his eyes followed to the floor. _Blood?!_

                “Eichi! Eichi what’s wrong? Why are you coughing, why is there blood? Eichi!” Keito was frantic now. Eichi had heard his footsteps, but the pepper was still attacking at his throat. He turned his head up at Keito, but that seemed to be a mistake as the worry on Keito’s face became more visible in the few seconds he looked up. _Oh. The tears. I should have just pointed._

                “Eichi! The blood. . . near your mouth, are you, are you coughing up blood?” Keito had a hard time getting out the words.

 _Oh. So the face wasn’t just for the tears._ While the coughing was slowly letting up, Eichi was unable to speak and weak from the coughing fit, his hands clinging to the edge of the counter for support. Before he could gather the energy to reply, Keito moved closer to support him.

                Keito didn’t know what to feel. Years had passed since the last time Eichi’s health was in such a condition. He turned his gaze from Eichi to the counter for a tissue and took in the sight before him. A rather large carton of tomato juice, a trail of the same color blood leading towards a glass with a rather unappealing concoction, and next to it some pepper, Tabasco sauce, and lemon. The ingredients all familiar to him. _Ah. I see._

               Keito pulled back from Eichi , walked over to the counter across, grabbed a glass, and filled it up with water from the refrigerator. He brought it back towards Eichi, who by now had stopped coughing. Eichi looked up at the glass placed on the counter. _Took you long enough Keito._ He grabbed the water and chugged it down, hoping to wash away all the pepper irritating his throat. After finishing the glass, he glanced up at Keito’s face. _How different._

               Keito couldn’t hold back the smirk that was forming on his face. He intended to be civil about the situation, seeing as he himself was quite worried, but the thought of Eichi trying to make a Bloody Mary, was amusing, _incredibly_ amusing.

              “Keito, I’m fine. Thanks for asking. I put too much pepper.” Eichi’s voice was raspy and mildly irritated. Seconds before, the look on Keito’s face was enough to make him apologize for putting it there, but now, the thought fled quickly from his mind.

               “Eichi, why were you making a Bloody Mary, you’re never one to try things like this?” Keito’s voice betrayed him as the amusement seeped through his words, but his curiosity was intended to be harmless.

               “Someone said you’d like it, spice and all.”

               “How was it?”

               “I think you know how it was Keito.”

               “How was it?” Keito was persistent.

               “I put in too much pepper, had a coughing fit, and the entire drink is disgusting. I can’t fathom why anyone would want to drink ketchup with vodka. It’s awful.” Eichi’s voice was back to normal.

               “Yeah. It’s pretty disgusting. I’ve had it before. This _someone_ , I’m sure it’s the same someone that made me try it the first time. I was very clear about my dislike back then.” Keito held the Tabasco bottle in his hand. Eichi stared at Keito in disbelief. The someone. _Of course. I was a fool._

               “But, I’ve always wanted to try this sauce by itself. It smells pretty spicy.” Keito put a little bit of the sauce on his finger and licked it. “Tasty.” He smiled at Eichi who groaned in response.


End file.
